Work-proviso housing bill clears Senate

Under plan, officials to ask U.S. to set new requirement

LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Senate on Monday handily approved a bill that would require public housing authorities in Arkansas to seek approval from the federal government to establish a new work requirement for able-bodied adults in households that receive housing assistance.

The Senate voted 28-5 to send House Bill 1196 by Rep. Kendon Underwood, R-Cave Springs, to the House to consider a Senate amendment to the measure.

Public housing assistance is a federally funded program, jointly administered with local agencies known as public housing authorities.

The bill is aimed at incentivizing work, said Sen. Ben Gilmore, R-Crossett, who is the bill’s House sponsor.

There is a current federal work requirement of eight hours a month for adults in public housing, and the state and the public housing authorities would petition the federal government to increase the requirement to 20 hours a week for able-bodied adults under the bill, he said.

Public housing authorities in North Carolina and Texas have incentivized work through the Biden Administration’s Moving to Work program, Gilmore said.

Each public housing authority in Arkansas would be required to request approval from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development by Jan. 1, 2025, to establish these work requirements under the bill. If the federal approval is denied, each public housing authority would be required to resubmit a request for approval within 24 months of each denial under the bill.

As a condition of being chartered and operating in the state, a public housing authority in Arkansas would be required to implement a work requirement for able-bodied adults in households that receive housing assistance under HB1196.

Under the bill, an able- bodied adult means an individual who is not younger than 19; older than 64; medically- certified as physically or mentally unfit for employment; pregnant; a parent or caretaker who is responsible for the care of a dependent child under 5 years of age; a parent or caretaker who is personally

providing the care for a dependent child with a serious medical condition or disability; receiving unemployment assistance and in compliance with work requirements that are part of the unemployment compensation benefit program; or participating in a drug addiction or alcoholic treatment and rehabilitation program.

The work requirement under the bill would mean that an able-bodied adult is required to do at least one of the following as a condition of eligibility: • Work an average of 20 hours or more per week. • Participate in and comply with the requirements of a work program for 20 hours or more per week.

• Volunteer at least 20 hours per week.

• Meet any combination of working and participating in a work program for a total of 20 hours or more per week. • Participate in and comply with the requirements of a workfare program.

Sen. Reginald Murdock, D- Marianna, said the bill wouldn’t exempt college students in public housing from the work requirement.

“I think that’s your intent,” he said. “That’s what you are saying, but it is not on the bill.”

Afterward, Gilmore said the bill would exempt college students in public housing through the “workfare program.”

Gilmore said public housing authorities would be responsible ensuring compliance with the work requirement.

The bill would create space for people on a public housing authority’s waiting list, if people are not willing to comply with the work requirement, he said.

Each public housing authority would be required to conduct a screening to determine whether each applicant or tenant in public housing administered by the housing authority is an able-bodied adult who is compliant with the work requirement, create an employability plan for each able-bodied adult in a household who receives housing assistance consistent with the work requirement, and terminate assistance for any household with an able-bodied adult who fails to comply with the work requirement within 60 days of noncompliance with the work requirement.

Sen. Fred Love, D-Mabelvale, said the work requirement “is not so detrimental,” but requiring work within 60 days deviates from what the federal government wants to do and that’s to house people.

The bill requires each housing authority to track a lot of information and that’s an unfunded mandate on each housing authority, he said.

As a condition of being chartered and operating in the state, a public housing authority is required to operate, among eligible households on a waiting list for benefits, a housing authority-wide local preference prioritizing the admission of a household in which all able-bodied adults in the household are compliant with the work requirement, whether or not the able-bodied adult is compliant with a work requirement in another public assistance program under the bill.

But a public housing authority would not be required under the bill to give priority to a household in which there are able-bodied adults compliant with a work requirement over a household in which there are no able-bodied adults subject to a work requirement.